A useful site focussing on helping Thai people to understand the situation in Burma. The main section is in Thai, with a set of articles from 2005-2007 translated into English...
"SNN is a project focusing on information and media, working to produce news and information about Burma in Thai language. So far, no organization in Thailand is focusing specifically on this arena, despite the fact that Thai and Burma are neighbors and a large number of people from Burma have fled to Thailand....
Thailand and Burma are neighboring countries but most of Thai people are still not informed and not understand about situations in Burma. One of the reasons is that there is too little information about Burma in Thai language. Hence, Salween News Network was established to produce and to be a center of information about Burma in Thai language....
Main objectives:
1. To produce and collect information (news, articles ,features ,books etc.) about Burma for Thai society....
2. To create a network among independent Burmese news agencies and Thai news agencies...
3. To train Burmese and Thai journalists to produce news, articles, features etc. about Burma in Thai mainstream media....
Main Activities:
1. Collect information and write news and articles
2. Publish newsletters and books about Burma in Thai language
3. Provide trainings for Burmese and Thai journalists.
4. Organise meeting for Thai and Burmese journalists....
Publication:
1. Salween News Network’s media
1.1 Listserve by snn_news@cm.ksc.co.thThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
1.2 Newsletter ( every 6 weeks)
1.3 Website www.salweennews.org
1.4 Books....
2. other media including Thai language newspapers and magazines.

Abstract: "Migration
is
the
act
or
process
of
moving
from
one
place
to
another
with
the
intent
of
staying
at
the
destination
permanently
or
for
a
relatively
long
period
of
time
(1992,
Longman).
It
can
also
be
assumed
that
people
move
from
one
place
to
another,
usually
their
home
place,
to
work
or
to
settle
in
another
place.
As
basic
factors,
migration
take
place
an
area
where
the
migrants
believe
that
their
opportunity
and
life
circumstances
will
be
better
at
their
destinations
than
the
present
location.
Nevertheless,
if
an
area
where
takes
place
a
movement
of
in-­migration
because
of
positive
conditions
(pull
factors),
this
will
be
generally
increased
the
population
or
human
resources.
Similarly,
if
an
area
where
takes
place
a
movement
of
out-­migration
due
to
negative
conditions
(push
factors),
this
area
will
lose
their
population
or
human
resources.
Some
time
it
affects
the
negative
impacts
and
potential
challenges
for
sustainable
socio-­economic
development
of
this
area.
Therefore,
this
study
is
based
on
some
specific
areas
of
Myanmar:
Hpa-­an
Township,
Kayin
State
and
Mrauk-­U
Township,
Rakhine
State
where
migration
process
takes
place
by
focusing
the
question
of
how
and
why
the
people
are
migrating
in
these
areas.
This
paper
is
intended
to
explore
the
migration
patterns
of
these
are
as
and
to
point
out
the
main
reasons
of
push
and
pull
factors
for
these
migrations.
To
obtain
the
relevant
data,
it
is
analyzed
with
field
observation
and
in
semi-­structured
in-­depth
interview
survey
method
to
the
local
authorities,
experts
and
local
people.
Some
of
the
facts
from
the
interview
data
are
assessed
by
SWOT
Analysis
to
know
the
strengths,
weaknesses,
opportunities
and
threats
due
to
migration.
As
a
result
from
this
study,
economic
condition
is
the
key
factor
of
the
migration
for
the
study
areas
and
that
effect
on
the
socioeconomic
condition
of
these
areas.".....Paper delivered at the International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­26 July 2015.

"In recent years migration studies have theorized that 21st-century migration is following patterns that both incorporate and diverge from academic and policymaking explanations of late 20th-century migration. The case of Myanmar, whose out-migration is well-known and well-enumerated, nevertheless shows both a less-known pattern of in-migration in rural areas as well as environmental (and not only economic) factors in both in- and out- migration.
James Clifford’s earlier, Asia-Pacific-focused work Routes, published in 1997, was influential in modifying the conventional academic foci on migration. Addressing the “subjectivity” of the ethnographers of peoples and migrations and their subjects as more an issue of shared, though differing, ideas of movement and space, he brought a new awareness of the interplay between semantic webs purportedly possessed by fieldwork subjects and their would-be interpreters among scholars. He followed this work with a particular narrative of Native American migration in Returns, published in 2013. Both of these works open the door for new attempts to study and interview migrants in their own situations and to grasp the diversity of migration beyond push-pull factors. One burgeoning methodology within this new research initiative was that of ethnographic interviews with migrants. Clifford had revealed an extremely human, molecularly detailed side of interviewees and respondents. Newer works began to concentrate almost exclusively on the migrants’ own narratives and to pull slighter, more localized explanations from them in the same mode as Charmaz’s grounded theory. Here were the roots of ‘new migration’ ideas. With the wealth of published data becoming available from migrants worldwide, small and large differences between their experiences and general migration theory became more apparent...".....Paper delivered at the International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­26 July 2015.

Abstract: "This paper presents the findings of a research study that investigated the level of education that the children of labor migrants from Burma now living in Chiang Mai, Thailand can access to as well as looking at the possibility and different channels for their further education should their parents decide to return to Burma. The focus of the study concentrates on four different ethnic groups, Karen, Karenni, Palaung and Shan by looking at children from the age between 4-13 years old to identify factors that are involved when these migrant children move back to Burma. At the same time, for many children who spent most of their lives in Thailand, it is interesting to see the possibilities and challenges for them in relating to accessing to education since Burma is a new home for many of them. Therefore, it is also interesting to see how the Burma government as well as the Thai education system will respond to this issue of educational development in the changing economic and democratic processes of these countries.".....Paper delivered at the International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­26 July 2015.

Abstract: "This
paper
draws
on
case
studies
of
Burmese
migrants
in
the
city
of
Chiang
Mai,
Thailand,
to
explore
concepts
and
theories
of
migration,
uneven
development
and
acculturation
in
which
migrants
engages
in
the
new
environment
of
urban
societies.
It
examines
the
new
emergence
of
push-­pull
factors
of
migration,
mainly
economic
reason
and
urban
attractions,
which
bring
Burmese
migrants
into
the
city.
Further,
the
paper
pays
more
attention
on
the
concept
of
uneven
development,
which
comes
along
with
the
process
of
development
in
urban
areas.
It
discusses
about
the
cities
like
Chiang
Mai
as
a
place
where
provides
residents
to
access
not
only
greater
opportunities
for
work,
activity
and
key
good
as
well
as
services,
but
the
places
also
emerge
alongside
rising
urban
inequality
for
a
certain
group
of
people,
particularly
Burmese
migrant
workers
are
recognized
as
a
local
symbol
of
inequality
in
Chiang
Mai,
as
well
as
in
Asia
region.
Lastly,
the
paper
focuses
analytical
attention
on
‘way
of
life’
of
Burmese
migrants
of
varying
cultural,
social,
political
and
economic
backgrounds,
which
it
responds
to
the
narratives
a
bout
urban
diversity
and
development
of
the
city
of
Chiang
Mai
where
they
encounter.
Based
on
acculturation
framework,
cultural
way
of
life
of
Burmese
migrants
living
in
Chiang
Mai
is
classified
into
three
main
areas;
assimilation,
separation
and
integration,
and
each
area
of
way
of
life
would
be
adapted
by
different
generations
of
the
migrants.
Therefore,
one
can
see
the
social
phenomenon
of
Burmese
migrants,
especially
Shan
ethnic
group,
would
emerge
through
Thai
society
in
the
city
at
different
levels
of
lifestyles.".....Paper delivered at the International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­26 July 2015.

Abstract: "This
article
aims
to
explain
the
relations
of
Mon
diaspora
at
Baan
Wang
Ka,
Kanchanaburi
Province,
Thailand
with
their
homeland.
It
argues
that
such
relationships
are
diverse
and
reflect
the
complexity
of
notion
of
“Bifocality”
explaining
that
homeland
is
the
place
of
spiritual
and
cultural
roots
while
host
countries
are
more
associated
with
economic
and
livelihoods.
Mon
diaspora
has
been
living
in
Baan
Wang
Ka
since
AD.
1948.
The
ethnic
suppression
policies
in
Myanmar
are
the
major
cause
of
transnational
mobility
of
these
people,
although,
in
the
later
periods,
some
of
them
left
their
homeland
to
go
to
Thailand
for
trading
and
eventually
resettled
at
the
village.
Currently,
Mon
people
in
the
village
include
four
generations
who
were
from
Myanmar
and
heirs
of
those
from
Myanmar,
however
these
people
associate
with
their
homeland
differently.
Some
relate
to
their
homeland
as
the
place
of
spiritual
and
identity
of
Mon
origin.
For
others,
their
connections
to
homeland
have
to
do
more
with
economic
than
cultural
and
spiritual
dimensions.
Such
diverse
relationships
related
to
not
solely
generation
differences
and
causes
of
migration,
but
also
individual’s
experience,
economic
opportunity,
legal
status,
social
status
in
Thailand
as
well
as
religious
belief.
On
another
score,
the
diversity
of
relationships
has
also
associated
with
their
homeland
and
host
country
contexts.".....Paper delivered at the International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­26 July 2015.

Abstract: "Migration
for
employment
has
been
a
global
challenge
in
today’s
world
along
with
the
rising
figure
of
world
migration
population.
For
that
reason,
the
drawbacks
of
labour
migration
need
to
be
managed
effectively
based
on
understanding
the
real
context
of
migrant
workers
in
the
country
in
which
they
work.
Based
on
the
pursuit
of
this
interest,
an
ethnographic
study
has
been
been
conducted
to
explore
the
social
relationship
among
Myanmar
migrant
workers
in
Malaysia
since
November
2014.
The
formulated
research
questions
is:
what
does
the
social
relationship
mean
among
Myanmar
migrant
workers
in
Malaysia?
More
specifically,
what
difficulties
do
they
face
and
how
do
they
seek
from
their
social
networks
in
case
of
difficulties
in
Malaysia;
and
what
social
organizations
contribute
to
meet
the
needs
and
difficulties
of
Myanmar
migrant
workers
in
Malaysia?...".....Paper delivered at the International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­26 July 2015.

"Since Myanmar opened up under the semi-civilian government in 2011, the diaspora have been encouraged to return.
As persecution on the basis of political activity or ethnicity is often the reason they left, many are reluctant to return permanently to what is an unclear political situation. As a result, brief stays are common. After so many years away from home, family and friends, it is difficult to image the experience of returning.
Twenty-four years after leaving his home for a new life in Australia, Saya Nai Tin Aye, my Burmese teacher, applied for a tourist visa to return to Myanmar. The process took longer than it does for regular tourists, as the Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs, and Immigration ministries must approve the application. It so happened that my trip to Myanmar would coincide with his. He invited me to visit his home village.
Nai Tin Aye, once president of the Australia Mon Association, is a softly spoken man, with a keen interest and knowledge of history. He has an inspiringly fastidious memory for dates. He left his home in Kawkareik Township, Kayin State in 1991. Formally a star volleyball player and school principal, he was well known and liked in the area. He also spent eight years in the armed resistance, living in the jungle and resisting the Tatmadaw (Burma Army).
In the 1990 elections, Nai Tin Aye worked for a local Mon politician. A warrant was issued for his arrest after authorities alleged irregularities in the campaign accounts. He fled to Thailand, registered with the UNHCR and was resettled in Australia in 1996. Between living in the jungle, Thailand and Australia, he has been away from his wife and three children for over 30 years.
Arriving in Nai Tin Aye’s village I was at somewhat of a loss; the place was considerably larger than I had expected, and I did not know the address. I hadn’t been able to make a telephone connection from Yangon. The motorcycle taxi driver who had reluctantly driven me out here suggested retiringly that I spend the night in a nearby town instead. We approached a group of men in a teashop, and our concerns eased. They had no doubt it was the Sayar Gyi (“principal” or “great teacher”) who we were looking for, and escorted us to his home..."

The 124-page report is based on 82 interviews with migrants from neighboring Burma, Cambodia, and Laos. It describes the widespread and severe human rights abuses faced by migrant workers in Thailand, including killings, torture in detention, extortion, and sexual abuse, and labor rights abuses such as trafficking, forced labor, and restrictions on organizing.

ABSTRACT: "Fleeing state-sponsored violence and economic decline in their home country, hundreds
of thousands of Myanmar émigrés have in recent years crossed the border into
Thailand
in search of a better life.
For the estimated 2 million Myanmar migrants now living there,
however, life in Thailand presents its own challenges. With insufficient legal provisions
to handle the influx of migrants, the Thai government has largely turned a blind eye to
abuse and exploitation suffered by migrant workers. Yet despite poor working conditions
and exploitation, there does not appear to be much of a call to improve conditions
through mobilization among the Myanmar migrant community.
The marked absence of mobilization on any level thus begs the question: why is the
migrant population in Thailand so passive in the face of severe strain and exploitation?
This thesis explores the issue of non-
mobilization among
migrant groups, using as a
framework two core concepts: social mobilization and precarity. The long-standing
discourse on social mobilization focuses on social and political action in response to
societal strain, taking into account other factors such as
access to resources and
institutional opportunities. Precarity, a newer concept and compliment to the established
social mobilization debates,
has been used to describe a
lifestyle characterized by
critical
social, economic, and political insecurity..."

Executive Summary:
"In the course of cross-border migration from Myanmar, many who are
involved in the migration process such as migrants, their families, money
lenders, brokers, transnational money transferors, etc., intentionally or unintentionally
maintain the status of illegality. However, with the objective to
negotiate their own way into the new livelihood space to secure their share
of development through migration, they see their exercises in maintaining
illegality as licit behavior, which is considered legitimate, given the social
context in which they live. The gap between what is considered illegal by
the state and as illicit by the people gets wider. It is easy for those who are
involved in the migration process to define the thin line between illegal and
illicit behavior – from their own social perception – which can never be identified
or recognized by the existing legal system in any country.
Strong social connections and networks of some ethnic groups that have
been in existence for a long time between Myanmar and its neighboring countries
have fueled cross-border human mobility in both directions, regardless
of legal border restrictions. Migration is often seen by the countries of
destination as a threat to national security and by the country of origin as
a problem to be solved. These negative perceptions got worse when crossborder
migration became more dynamic, taking place in various informal/
illegal forms. Most studies attempted to highlight push and pull factors of
this dynamic cross-border migration from Myanmar, as well as the living
and working conditions of Myanmar migrants living abroad and their remittances.
However, there are very few studies that shed light on the course
of cross-border migration from Myanmar from the view of migrants, their
families and their home community, and its implications on them.
Millions of Myanmar migrants are working under undesirable and vulnerable
conditions in foreign countries far away from their families. Most of
them got into such situations voluntarily, in order to improve the livelihood
of their families, and to provide education and health care for their children at
home. Although most of them are illegal migrant workers, they are far from
being criminals. They are making important sacrifices and live “borrowed
lives” in order to send money back home to help their families. They are just
ordinary people trying to make ends meet, and for their extraordinary sacrifices,
they are considered heroes by their families.
Most people in the countries of destination normally hear a single story
about illegal migrant workers. There are endless stories of illegal migrants
portraying them as people who are sneaking across the border, stealing
the jobs of local people, committing crimes, etc. Most people have been so
immersed with negative media coverage that migrants have become one
thing in their mind, the bad guys. It may not be fair if the bad behavior of few
unscrupulous illegal migrants is considered representative of the millions
of them working under very hard conditions, simply to provide bread and
butter for their families back home and contributing to increased production
and economic development in the country of destination.
Although the acts of professional traffickers – who are committing serious
crimes of human trafficking across borders that have a series of negative
social impacts, not only on trafficked victims, but also on the families of those
victims – are perceived as illicit, the acts of local brokers who facilitate voluntary
cross-border migration of ordinary people (exploring job opportunities
across the border) at a reasonable fee, and finding appropriate jobs for them
(through their social connections in the country of destination), are not considered
illicit by most local people. Far from being thought of as criminals,
their services create win-win situations and are considered essential, and
their actions – that may have flouted the state’s rules and regulations – cause
no victims.
This paper highlights the perception of each and everyone involved in the
course of cross-border migration from Myanmar in each step they, internationally
or unintentionally, maintain the status of illegality. It also attempts
to identify the implications of cross-border migration on migrants’ families
and their community in the country of origin. Interviews and questionnaire
surveys conducted in different projects in 2008 and 2009 in different places in
Myanmar and neighboring countries, coupled with qualitative and quantitative
analyses, attempt to enhance the reliability and representativeness of the
findings in this paper."

"A Karen village exists where children grow up in peace and security. They go to school and attend church with their families. They are not afraid of soldiers. Their parents vote and travel as they wish.
The village has electricity, clean water and shops. It is not in the insurgent territory of Kawthoolei, beleaguered Papun or the cyclone-swept Irrawaddy delta, and it is not one of the fragile border hamlets of Thailand.
Middle andaman (seen here in red) is India's largest island, covering more than 1,500 square kilometers.
This village is Webi, on an island called Middle Andaman, which belongs to India..."

"International reporting of the large-scale migration of those leaving Burma in search of work abroad has highlighted the perils for migrant during travel and in host countries. However, there has been a lack of research in the root causes of this migration. Identifying the root causes of migration has important implications for the assistance and protection of these migrants. Drawing on over 150 interviews with villagers in rural Burma and those from Burma who have sought employment abroad, this report identifies the exploitative abuse underpinning poverty and livelihoods vulnerability in Burma which, in turn, are major factors motivating individuals to leave home and seek work abroad..."
_Thailand-based interviewees explained to KHRG how exploitative abuses increased poverty, livelihoods vulnerability and food insecurity for themselves and their communities in Burma. These issues were in turn cited as central push factors compelling them to leave their homes and search for work abroad. In some cases, interviewees explained that the harmful effects of exploitative abuse were compounded by environmental and economic factors such as flood and drought and limited access to decent wage labour.[17]
While the individuals interviewed by KHRG in Thailand would normally be classified as 'economic migrants', the factors which they cited as motivating their choice to migrate make it clear that SPDC abuse made it difficult for them to survive in their home areas. Hence, these people decided to become migrants not simply because they were lured to Thailand by economic incentives, but because they found it impossible to survive at home in Burma. Clearly, the distinction between push and pull factors is blurred in the case of Burmese migrants.
The concept of pull factors for migrants is further complicated because migrants are not merely seeking better jobs abroad, but are instead pulled to places like Thailand and Malaysia in order to access protection. For refugees and IDPs, protection is a service that is often provided by government bodies, UN agencies and international NGOs. For refugees in particular, protection is often primarily understood to mean legal protection against refoulement - defined as the expulsion of a person to a place where they would face persecution. Beyond legal protection against refoulement, aid agencies have implemented specific forms of rights-based assistance, such as gender-based violence programmes, as part of their protection mandates.
However, for migrants from Burma the act of leaving home is overwhelmingly a self-initiated protection strategy through which individuals can ensure their and their families' basic survival in the face of persistent exploitative and other abuse in their home areas. This broader understanding of protection goes beyond legal protection against refoulement and the top-down delivery of rights-based assistance by aid agencies. It involves actions taken by individuals on their own accord to lessen or avoid abuse and its harmful effects at home.[18]
KHRG has chosen to use the term self-initiated protection strategy, rather than a more generic concept like 'survival strategy', in order to highlight the political agency of those who choose such migration. By seeing this protection in political terms, one can better understand both the abusive underpinnings of migration from Burma as well as the relevance of such migration to the protection mandates of governments, UN agencies and international NGOs currently providing support to conventional refugee populations. Understanding protection in this way presents opportunities for external support for the many self-initiated protection strategies (including efforts to secure employment without exploitation, support dependent family members, enrol children in school and avoid arrest, extortion and deportation) which migrant workers regularly use._

"MAP Foundation, an innovative migrant workers’ support group based in Chiang Mai, has launched a short animated documentary on DVD to promote safety and health in the workplace aimed at migrant workers.
In a humorous but informative way, the 10-minute cartoon deals with the hazards that lurk in factories, construction projects and farms. The moral of the documentary is that migrant workers are particularly vulnerable to physical dangers and must take steps to protect themselves, for instance, by wearing protective clothing or by opposing reckless employers..."

Migrant artist shares his earnings with the refugees who people his canvases...
"Suffering from depression and weighed down by the hardships of life in Burma, Maung Maung Tinn finally decided to leave his home town, Moulmein, capital of Mon State. That was in 1994.
“I felt I had no future there, so I left my home,” the soft-spoken painter said. The child of a Shan father and Karen mother, Maung Maung Tinn felt hopelessness at not being able to help his parents and grandparents. They were helping to pay for his studies at Moulmein University, while he did his best to lighten the load o­n them by working as a clerk in a government-owned electricity plant.
Like many other Burmese, he made for Mae Sot, in Thailand, where he rapidly found employment at Dr Cynthia Maung’s Clinic, working at first as a chef, preparing meals for patients and medical staff, and then becoming a trained medic and health worker in the clinic’s outpatient department.
His real talent surfaced, however, during his free time—hours he spent drawing and painting. He had shown promise at school, inspired by such famous Burmese artists as Wa Thone and Myo Myint..."

In addition to greater international attention on their plight in exile, Thailand’s growing community of Burmese Muslims wants a voice in the political future of their country... "...The desire for equal protection—at home and in exile—seems to be the order of the day for Mae Sot’s Burmese Muslim community. Like the majority of refugees, they wait for the opportunity to return to a free Burma. Meanwhile, they do what they can to provide for their families, practice their religion without constraints and hope that greater attention is given to what the IHRC calls “the oppressed of the oppressed.”"

Abstract: This paper examines the securitization process of unauthorised migration in Thailand, in particular how the cross-border flows of marginalised minorities, the so-called 'hill tribes' came to be seen as an 'existential threat' to Thai national identity by the state. The paper aims to present a case of societal security by highlighting the importance of national identity. It intends to explore the reasons for portraying cross-border mobility of border minorities as existential threats to the integrity of the Thai state. More specifically, it will investigate the motives of the securitising actor, the Thai state – and examine why the issue evoked security concerns in the wake of the 1997 economic crisis and the way 'emergency measures' were introduced. This paper will illustrate the importance of ethnocized discourses on national identity by broadening the traditional security studies' framework on states and political-military competition at the borderlands.

1. INTRODUCTION:
People from Burma have been entering Thailand since the Ne Win coup in 1962. Most of these people have fled civil war, hunger, poverty, unemployment and political oppression. A significant proportion of these Burmese are employed in the lower rungs of the Thai labour market. Despite the large numbers of people from Burma working in Thailand, there has been very little reliable statistical analysis undertaken in order to understand the situation faced by these people. The paucity of reliable information in this area led us to conduct a survey of about 1,400 people from Burma working in Thailand.1 The survey was undertaken between October 2003 and March 2004, in the following 12 provinces:
• Bangkok
• Singburi
• Lopburi
• Saraburi
• Tak (Mae Sot District)
• Ratchaburi
• Kanchanburi (Kanchanaburi and Sangklaburi Districts)
• Ranong (Ranong District)
• Samut Sakhon (Mahachai)
• Phetchaburi
• Chiang Mai (Chiang Mai and Fang Districts)2
• Mae Hong Son (Mae Hong Son District)...The following is a discussion of the results of a partial preliminary statistical analysis of a sample of about 1,100 of these workers with regard to their place of origin, time of arrival, income in the last 20 years, receipt of a minimum wage and their possession of a work permit.3 The analysis does not involve the estimation of population parameters and any consequent inferences about the nature of the population (though inferences about the population will be published later). Rather, the following is a statistical description of Burmese workers in Thailand, which we, argue is important given the paucity of reliable and credible work in this area.

Karen Internally Displaced Persons wonder when they will be able to go home...
"Sitting in his new bamboo hut in Ler Per Her camp for Internally Displaced Persons, located on the bank of Thailand’s Moei River near the border with Burma, Phar The Tai—a skinny, tough-looking man of 60 who used to hide in the jungles and mountains of Burma’s eastern Karen State—waits for the time when he can return home.
“We are living in fear all the time,” he says about the lives of IDPs. His words reflect the general feeling among IDPs from Karen State, which has produced the largest number of displaced people in Burma..."

Burmese paintings find their home in a Chiang Mai gallery...
"It’s a sad reflection on the Rangoon regime’s restrictive policies on artistic expression that one of Southeast Asia’s finest collections of contemporary Burmese art isn’t to be found in Burma, but in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand.
All the works in Lashio-born Mar Mar’s collection—more than 400 paintings, drawings and collages by 50 or so artists—were created in Burma, but many of them could never be displayed publicly there. They include paintings deemed “political” and nudes that would offend the puritanical tastes of the Rangoon generals..."

Preserving Burmese traditions in Thailand...
"In 1886 the British finally conquered Mandalay, the historic capital of the last independent Burmese kingdom. San Toe, a servant of the beleaguered King Thibaw and a devout Buddhist, fled the newly colonized city, bringing with him an image of the Buddha crafted by Mandalay artisans. He worked in the logging business as an employee of the Bombay Burma Trading Corporation before settling in the town of Mae Sariang in northern Thailand. There he built a Burmese monastery in 1909 to house his cherished Buddha image.
Historically, the Burmese have viewed the city of Mandalay as a source of pride and an important link to Burma’s rich cultural and religious traditions. The name of the monastery in Mae Sariang, Wat Mandalay, reflects this connection and honors the lineage of the monastery’s central religious artifact—the Mandalay-made Buddha image..."

Important, authoritative and timely report.
I. THAI GOVERNMENT CLASSIFICATION FOR PEOPLE FROM BURMA:
Temporarily Displaced; Students and Political Dissidents ; Migrants .
II. BRIEF PROFILE OF THE MIGRANTS FROM BURMA .
III REASONS FOR LEAVING BURMA :
Forced Relocations and Land Confiscation ;
Forced Labor and Portering;
War and Political Oppression;
Taxation and Loss of Livelihood;
Economic Conditions .
IV. FEAR OF RETURN.
V. RECEPTION CENTERS.
VI. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS....
"Recent estimates indicate that up to two million people from Burma currently reside in Thailand, reflecting one of the largest migration flows in Southeast Asia. Many factors contribute to this mass exodus, but the vast majority of people leaving Burma are clearly fleeing persecution, fear and human rights abuses. While the initial reasons for leaving may be expressed in economic terms, underlying causes surface that explain the realities of their lives in Burma and their vulnerabilities upon return. Accounts given in Thailand, whether it be in the border camps, towns, cities, factories or farms, describe instances of forced relocation and confiscation of land; forced labor and portering; taxation and loss of livelihood; war and political oppression in Burma. Many of those who have fled had lived as internally displaced persons in Burma before crossing the border into Thailand. For most, it is the inability to survive or find safety in their home country that causes them to leave.
Once in Thailand, both the Royal Thai Government (RTG) and the international community have taken to classifying the people from Burma under specific categories that are at best misleading, and in the worst instances, dangerous. These categories distort the grave circumstances surrounding this migration by failing to take into account the realities that have brought people across the border. They also dictate people’s legal status within the country, the level of support and assistance that might be available to them and the degree of protection afforded them under international mechanisms. Consequently, most live in fear of deportation back into the hands of their persecutors or to the abusive environments from which they fled..." Additional keywords: IDPs, Internal displacement, displaced, refoulement.

"Htay Htay is a half Karen half Burman woman who came to Thailand in search of a better life. Now, she lives in a rubbish dump in the outskirts of the border town of Mae Sot on the Thailand-Burma border. Htay Htay is one of about 400 people who live in the dump, all barely making a living by picking up and selling rubbish. Htay Htay says that although they really don’t want to live amidst the rubbish, they have no choice. Read her story to find out why she feels that life ‘living in the dirt’ is better than life in her home country."